Four mechanisms that can produce disequilibrium chemistry in an exoplanet atmosphere are:
The exoplanet transport and photochemical examples follow kinetic atmosphere calculations and models including horizontal transport; the condensate example is examined in cold-trap calculations.
For a spherical planet, combine the hydrostatic pressure support equation with :
Neglect surface pressure. Since , the hydrostatic lower bound on planetary central pressure is
For a physically usual mass density decreasing outward, the mean interior density exceeds the global mean. Hence , giving the sharper minimum within this class,
Uniform mass density attains the sharper bound; direct integration with gives . Real planets are centrally concentrated through compression and dense cores, so their central pressure is higher.
Using , , , and , the universal bounds are approximately for Earth and for Jupiter. The uniform-density estimates are respectively and , or and megabars. Either comparison gives a Jupiter minimum about 6.4 times the Earth minimum.